


Meiji 15

by DemiGardess



Category: Nurarihyon no Mago | Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rikuo is Yamabuki's Son
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24520129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemiGardess/pseuds/DemiGardess
Summary: In the fifteenth year of the Meiji Era, Yamabuki Otome bore her husband their long-awaited son.In the fifteenth year of the Meiji era, the Nura clan fell.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	1. All The Adults of this Beautiful Town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _ハーメルンはどのようにして笛を吹くのか?_   
>  _綺麗な街の大人達はだれも知らない_
> 
> _Pied piper of Hameln, how will you play your flute tonight?_  
>  _All the adults of this beautiful town, none of them know who you are._  
>  \- Hello Sleepwalkers, _Hamerun wa Donoyounishite Fue wo Fukunoka_

In the fifteenth year of the Meiji Era, Yamabuki Otome bore her husband their long-awaited son.

In the fifteenth year of the Meiji era, the Nura clan fell. 

~oOo~

It was murder, they whispered in the dark corners of inns. Someone murdered the first Lord of Pandemonium, and his son had been too weak to keep the clan together. 

This was partially true. Nurarihyon had been killed, and with his death came a civil war in the youkai world. 

His son had been away from the main house, intending to spend every precious moment with his wife in her final days of pregnancy. 

News travelled slowly in those days. 

Nura Rihan didn't hear of his father's death until two weeks later, when he was cradling his three-day-old son in his arms while his exhausted wife leaned against his shoulder. 

He'd made preparations to leave almost immediately, insisting that his wife stay behind to protect their son. He kissed their baby on the forehead, his wife on the lips, and promised that he'd be back to hear what name she'd decided to give their child. 

~oOo~

Yamabuki Otome never saw the love of her life again. 

~oOo~

She named their child Rikuo, and swore that she'd give him the happiest life that she could. But her body was already beginning to fail her. 

Yamabuki was not an old youkai, but childbirth had taken its toll on her. The curse which Rihan had once spoken of may have been weakened greatly, but it was still present. She knew that she would be dead long before her son spoke his first words. 

Looking at her child lying happily on the tatami mats in the morning sunlight, she felt her heart almost break. Tears welled in her dark eyes. 

“Mama loves you.” She promised, letting him grip her finger in his tiny hand “Mama will always love you.”

She could not stay with him, as the months wore on and she felt her time drawing nearer. Unable to hold back her tears, she took her son to the Shinto shrine at the foot of the mountains. It was a shrine to the fox goddess Inari - not the biggest or most beautiful, but she felt the love poured into these grounds by the shrine maidens, and knew that they'd take care of her son. 

She spoke with the head shrine maiden. “I will not live much longer,” she said softly “but my child has a full life ahead of him.” The shrine maiden nodded sympathetically, and an agreement was reached. 

Yamabuki wrote down Rikuo's name and birthdate, leaving both given and family name in hiragana. She hesitated for a moment, before writing _Otome_ instead of _Nura_. Kubinashi, Setsura, and Kejorou would know to look for that name. 

Others, enemies, would not. 

She left him her favourite fan tantou, and a crudely carved cherry blossom necklace. Rihan had made it for her, but his metalwork skills had been...less that adequate. It looked more like a misshapen lump than a flower, but Yamabuki loved it and refused Rihan's offer to buy her a ‘better’ one.

“Mama loves you.” She whispered, kissing her son for the last time “Mama loves you.”

She returned to the house in the mountains, and died. The flowers for which she was named spread from her corpse.

~oOo~

The shrine maidens kept their word, raising Rikuo the best they could. 

It fell apart one summer night. 

He’d been feverish all day, and woken at some early hour needing water.

It was a miracle that he made it across the shrine grounds without tripping, disoriented as he was from what he thought was sickness. 

Clumsy hands had lit a lantern, he’d drawn back the cover on the bucket, raised the lantern - and screamed when the face that looked back at him wasn’t his own. 

White hair, red eyes - 

The shrine maidens had thought that he was possessed, and tried to exorcise him. This belief moved onto the idea that the Rikuo they had raised had been replaced, and then onto the realisation that he was a born youkai who had never been human. Much argument ended on the conclusion that it had not been his decision to deceive them, but he had to go. 

The shrine maidens didn’t want to kill the child they had raised.

Rikuo left the day after, carrying his few possessions in a bag that he had made himself.

~oOo~

So, he wasn’t human.

Youkai.

_Youkai._

Until very recently, that word hadn’t meant much to him. Youkai were just myths, weren’t they? Just stories meant to stop him from wandering off after dark.

_White hair, red eyes._

Rikuo’s hand went to the pendant tied around his neck as he looked to the horizon.

It seemed that he could only look human during the day. At night…white hair, red eyes.

 _I’m a youkai,_ he thought.

_I, Otome Rikuo, am a youkai._

He would have to get used to that idea.

~oOo~

Alone in an unfamiliar world, Rikuo soon learned that there was safety in numbers. He found a group of children from fallen youkai clans, living at the foot of the mountains, near the coastal plains that seemed to stretch on forever. 

They took him in happily enough.

There were two dozen or so, the youngest around four and the oldest being fifteen. Rikuo fell into the place of second-oldest. 

They had their own little village, built crudely out of sticks and woven grass. They'd often fish in the nearby river, or head up the mountains to hunt for larger game. A memorable occasion saw several of the younger youkai practically flying down the mountain, screaming at the top of their lungs, with a bear in tow. 

It was at this point that Rikuo discovered that he could set things on fire with a bit of alcohol, and subsequently started a forest fire. 

Rikuo was mortified. 

The snow apparitions put the fire out before it reached their camp, and the bear never came back.

In the end, no harm done. But the other youkai would hold this against Rikuo for years.

After a while, the group decided to move north towards the human city known as Tokyo. 

All of them shrieked excitedly at the sight of a train, one of the younger fire apparitions setting himself alight in his joy and causing quite a panic. 

With their dirty faces, bare feet and old clothes, they fit right in around the outskirts of the city.

~oOo~

As the years went on, they drifted apart.

Some tired of a monotonous life and struck out on their own, and those with unchanging faces moved to the youkai districts. 

Rikuo found himself working in a restaurant belonging to the quickly-growing Bakeneko clan. He soon learned he looked a lot like the second head of the fallen Nura clan, and that many people took offence to that.

A youkai woman - Kuchisake-Onna - worked the same hours as him, and she was friendly enough once you got past her tendency to mutilate anyone who commented on her appearance. She helped him figure out a way to plait and twist his hair into something that didn't look too weird. 

“Without the ridiculous hair, you don’t look half as much like Nura Rihan.” She explained, “I’d cut it, but then you’d just look stupid.”

“Wow, thanks.”

The end result looked feminine, but gender was a vague concept amongst youkai, anyway. It wasn't like anyone would really care. It was a small price to pay to be able to freely wander around without the constant fear of being mistaken for the dead second head and attacked. 

~oOo~

He survived the firebombings of Tokyo, and fought against the western youkai that attacked alongside the humans. He became some mix of an infiltrator and a runner, able to easily slip past enemies undetected.

Rikuo remained mostly uninjured for the duration of the war, until the summer of 1945. He'd been far away enough to survive, but close enough to be struck with debris, burned, and thrown off his feet by the shockwave. 

The screams would haunt him for decades to come. 

He lost part of the sight in his left eye; a flying piece of metal had hit him in the face. It made a long cut, slicing down his face like the mockery of a tear, and scarred. It was improving, which he was glad for. 

Returning to the job at the Bakeneko clan, he found that Kuchisake-Onna was still there. She never asked about what had happened, but she did brush back his hair to look at the still-fresh wound on his face.

~oOo~

Rikuo attended human school for the first time as a result of a lost bet, and was surprised to find the company of humans well worth the effort it took to sustain a human appearance. He was unable to stay longer than a year or two – courtesy of his unchanging face. Still, watching his human friends pass on had hurt him more than he’d expected.

It was surprising that he ended up confessing this to Ryouta Neko over a friendly game of Koi-Koi.

It was even _more so_ when Ryouta Neko offered to get him paperwork to register himself in the human world, as well as someone to act as a parental figure.

Several days later, he was meeting Nura Wakana for the first time. A human woman somehow involved in the world of youkai, whose smile seemed brighter than the sun.

“I could act as your family,” she offered. “I lost my own son a long time ago, and I’ve heard that you never knew your parents. Maybe we could help each other…fill that void, a little.”

He stared at her for a long time, and she never once flinched under his piercing red gaze.

“I think…” He said, stopping to order his thoughts. “I think I’d like that, yes.”

And that’s how he found himself in her care. She gave him a small room and told him to make it his in any way he wanted, short of knocking down the walls. 

Wakana kept a small memorial altar to her son and husband. He avoided that corner.

Ryouta Neko soon presented him with the documents that would cement his existence in the human world. When Rikuo nervously asked what the payment would be, the head of the Bakeneko clan waved him off with a laugh, and told him that continuing to work the rush hour would be sufficient.

Kuchisake-Onna nearly fell over laughing when she found out that he was going to be attending human school again. He threw a tea towel at her, which she caught and immediately hurled back. 

~oOo~

He met one of his future classmates while fighting with a vending machine. He’d tried to buy an inarizushi, but it had gotten stuck. The human boy had walked over and bought a can of corn soup with the hope of knocking the inarizushi down. 

The corn soup also became stuck.

The next fifteen minutes were spent shaking the machine and screaming their frustrations when the food didn’t budge. 

A shopkeeper eventually came over, and whacked the top of the machine. Both items immediately fell into the slot, and the shopkeeper laughed at their expressions as she left.

They ended up sitting together, and chatting.

“I go to Ukiyoe middle.” The blond boy said “You?”

“I’ve been homeschooled.” Rikuo lied “I’m starting at Ukiyoe middle next term.”

“What year are you going to be?” He asked “Maybe we’ll be in the same class.”

“Second year of middle school.”

“Cool, we’ll probably be in the same class! I’m Shima! What’s your name?”

“O-oh, Nura.”

That was weird to say. He’d spent so long trying not to be mistaken for the dead second heir, and now he’d ended up with the name. He would have to ask Wakana how it was spelled.

“Do you play any sports, Nura?” Shima asked.

“Not formally.” Rikuo replied “I’ll play ball games with the other kids in my apartment block, stuff like that.”

“What kind of ball games? Do you think you’d join a sports club? We’re always looking for more members!”

“Um...cricket, soccer, basketball...I wasn’t very good at any of them. I don’t think I’d join a club. I don’t like competing.”

“That’s a pity.” Shima said, glancing up at the streetlights as they flickered on. “Anyway, want to swap numbers?”

“Sure.”

He caught himself before he handed his phone over - most of his contacts were saved under the sort of names that would definitely raise some eyebrows. Instead he copied Shima’s number, and sent a brief text.

_XXX-XXX-XXX: Hi_

“Cool.” Shima said, copying the number into his contacts.

“I gotta run now. It was nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Rikuo echoed, watching the human boy jog away. He bit back a snicker as the blond tried to throw his empty can into a bin and missed.

Overhead, the streetlights flickered on.

  
  



	2. Fast Suburban Chains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _...but their minds were always closed, and their hearts were held in fast suburban chains._  
>  \- Cold Chisel, _Khe Sanh_

Everyone noticed the new addition to their class within thirty seconds of entering the classroom.

He was a shorter boy with glasses and brown hair, sitting around the middle of row four, brand-new shoes not yet bearing the grey stripe of a first-year.

“Isn’t that Nagachika’s seat?” someone muttered.

“Nah, he transferred classes, remember? He’s in 1-A, now.”

“Oh, I forgot about that!”

“So...should we go say hi?”

The classroom door slammed open.

“Yo! Nura!” Shima Jirou bounced over to the new guy’s desk, grinning brighter than the sun. “You are in my class! This is great!”

The new guy - “Nura” - looked a little bemused, but smiled.

“C’mon! I’ll show you around!”

“Shouldn’t we stay in here?” Nura questioned hesitantly.

“Nah, class doesn’t start for the next twenty minutes! C’mon!” And with that, Shima hauled the new guy out of the class by the wrist.

They weren’t back by the time the teacher arrived to take the roll.

“Where’s Shima?” she asked, glancing at the empty chair.

“He’s here, but not here.” someone called.

“He was showing the new kid around.” another person volunteered.

The door slammed open again at this precise moment, showing both students.

“Sorry we’re late!” Shima cried, bowing and rushing to his seat. The new kid bowed hurriedly, repeating the phrase, before straightening and looked around for a moment in an attempt to remember which desk was his.

A girl in the fourth row subtly pointed to the desk next to her. He brightened, quickly making his way to the seat.

“Thanks.” He murmured to her as he sat down.

“No problem.” She responded “I’m Torii, you?”

“Nura. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Same to you.”

They stopped talking, as the teacher made Rikuo do the walk of shame to the front of the class and introduce himself. He monumentally screwed up the spelling of his name, having automatically started the swooping first character of _Otome_ and realised halfway that he was writing the wrong name. 

“Nura Rikuo,” He said, stumbling a little over the false family name “Please take care of me.”

~oOo~

“Do you want to meet my friends?” Shima asked, materialising next to Rikuo almost before the lunch bell had finished ringing. 

“Sure!” Rikuo replied, digging in his bag for the packed lunch that he’d cobbled together on the way to school.

“I’ve just gotta buy lunch, but they’ll be up on the roof.” The blond said “You can’t miss my friends - Kiyotsugu will probably be on some rant. They’re usually on the side of the roof closest to the basketball courts.”

Shima was right; it was impossible to miss this guy. He was the only one standing in his group, shouting and waving a sheet of paper excitedly in the air.

The wind decided that the paper looked nice, caught it, and wrenched it out of the guy’s hand to fly across the rooftop. Rikuo trapped it with his foot.

“Thanks!” the guy called, jogging over. Rikuo picked up the paper to hand it back to him, but froze when he saw the semi-familiar characters printed on it.

_Where did this guy get a summoning paper?_

“It’s a seal for protection against youkai!” The guy announced cheerfully “I’m Kiyotsugu! Are you interested in youkai? Will you join our club?”

Rikuo blinked.

_He thinks it’s for...protection? How stupid is this guy??_

“Yeah, youkai are kinda cool.” He settled for.

_Someone’s gotta save these idiots when they accidentally summon something with this._

“Great! Come meet the other members! You’re new, right? What’s your name?”

“Uh- yes, I only just started here today.” Rikuo said, once again finding himself being dragged around.

“Hey, Nura!” the girl from his first class called, waving. “Kiyotsugu got you, too?” She moved across and gestured for him to sit.

“Thanks.” he said, sitting down and opening up his lunchbox.

“So, which school did you transfer from?” A blond girl asked.

“I was mostly homeschooled.” Rikuo replied, taking the wrapping off his vending-machine onigiri. He made a face when he bit into it; he’d gotten the cheapest packet that he’d seen, and it didn’t have any seasoning.

“Which area are you in?” Kiyotsugu asked “Do you catch a train?”

“I’m from the Kyattoden area. I don’t catch the train - I’ve been riding my bike to school.”

“Guys, slow down for a minute,” the brown-haired girl said “Don’t just keep bombarding him with questions - at least introduce yourselves! I’m Ienaga.”

“Maki.” The blonde said, waving her chopsticks in a nonchalant manner and nearly spearing Ienaga in the eye.

“Torii. I sit next to you in core classes.” said the cat-eyed girl.

Rikuo nodded politely in response to each name, and re-introduced himself when they all looked at him expectantly.

Shima arrived up at the roof, offered a cheerful greeting, and plunked himself down next to him.

“You sit real formal, Nura,” he said, unscrewing the cap of his water bottle.

“I do?” Rikuo asked, glancing around. He was sitting seiza, while the rest of them were sitting with their legs crossed western-style.

“Huh. I didn’t notice.”

“Doesn’t it hurt to sit like that?”

“No.”

A few little birds flitted around the rails, prompting Torii to throw her jacket over her lunchbox.

“They _will_ steal your lunch,” she informed Rikuo, “I’ve seen them take a rice ball straight from someone’s hand.”

Rikuo eyed the tiny bird with new respect, watching as it pecked hopefully at some discarded wax paper. That reminded him-

“Hey, can I see that seal thing again?” He asked, looking at Kiyotsugu.

“Sure!” Kiyotsugu replied, passing the sheet of paper to him.

Rikuo quickly brushed any clinging rice from his hand before taking the paper.

 _Yep, this is the real deal_ , he thought, _you could summon some...pretty strong stuff with this thing._

The minute defenses woven into the symbols sparked and crackled as he brushed his hand over the lines, sensing his presence. Quickly drawing his hand back, he studied it from a few more angles before passing it back to Kiyotsugu.

“What do you think?” the human boy asked eagerly.

Rikuo shrugged.

_Now’s my chance to put him off!_

“It doesn’t really look like a protection seal to me,” he said, “There aren’t any barrier runes - just invoking ones. If anything, I’d think that it was a summoning circle.”

Everyone stared at him.

“You can read this?” Kiyotsugu asked quietly.

“...Kinda?” Rikuo offered.

Kiyotsugu looked at him with shining eyes. “Did we just become best friends?”

“No!” Shima yelled, launching across the lunch circle and wrapping his arms around Rikuo, “He’s mine! Mine! I found him first!”

Rikuo sputtered in surprise. 

“Boys, boys, go play somewhere else if you can’t share,” Maki said mock-sternly. “And let go of Nura. He’s turning a weird colour.”

Shima let go, noting that Rikuo’s face was bright red.

“You can say if he’s making you uncomfortable,” Maki continued, “Shima’s very...forward.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Rikuo said, “I used to have siblings. They’d do much worse.”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.

The entire circle stared at him.

“Is that a necklace?” Kana asked, breaking the awkward silence.

Rikuo glanced down, noting that his necklace had fallen out of his shirt - probably from when Shima tackled him. He quickly tucked it back underneath his shirt.

“You’ll want to hide that better,” Maki suggested, “Teachers will take it off you if they see it. What’s the pendant of?”

“I...think it’s a flower?” Rikuo offered, “It was my mother’s.”

There was more silence.

“Anyway,” Kiyotsugu began, before rolling his eyes when he was interrupted by the bell. “I’ll talk to you again later!"

~oOo~

“Nura! Nura! Hey!”

Realising that it was him who was being addressed, Rikuo looked up from his bike lock to see Kiyotsugu waving frantically at him from across the flood of students leaving school as fast as they could.

“I don’t have your number,” the human said breathlessly, weaving through the crowd to get to him and holding out his phone. “Can you add yourself to my contacts?”

“Uh...sure.” Rikuo said, dropping his bag on the back of his bike so he’d have both hands free. He heard Kiyotsugu make a little choking noise as he got a good look at the state of Rikuo’s bike. Rikuo had gotten the bike brand new in the 80’s, but by now it was held together by some unholy mix of luck, sheer willpower, and Fear-infused duct tape. 

Quickly tapping in his number and name, he passed the phone back.

“Thanks,” Kiyotsugu said, glancing at the screen, “Your given name’s in hiragana?”

“Yeah.” Rikuo looked back to his bike lock.

“Cool. Anyway, I’ll add you to the group chat and send you my address! Seeya!”

~oOo~

“Look who finally decided to show up!” crowed Tomoe, one of his more unsavoury coworkers. 

“I’m _on time._ ” Rikuo yelled back, seriously considering throwing something.

“Sure, sure.”

Rolling his eyes, Rikuo brushed past the other youkai into the back room, where a few other coworkers were playing cards before their shifts. They exchanged greetings and chatted until it struck seven, and work started. 

It was a relatively uneventful shift, until someone called out to him around midnight.

“Hey, Otome?” 

“It’s Okumura’s turn to do the mopping!” He yelled back. 

“No, no, I just wanted to ask you something.” It was a very tall youkai with red and white hair, who Rikuo recognised but couldn’t name. “Did you hear anything about a woman in black?”

“Uh...” Rikuo wracked his brains, “No, I don’t think so.”

“Hmm. Keep an ear out, would you?”

“I’ll try to.”

~oOo~

“Please welcome your new class member,” the teacher said, gesturing to the stone-faced girl standing up front. “She was supposed to arrive yesterday, but I understand that there were some complications?”

“Yes,” the girl confirmed with a firm nod. “My train was delayed, and I found myself only arriving here in the late afternoon.”

The door slid open as two students came in late, muttering apologies. 

“Nura, Kuriyama, it’s nice of you to join us. Please fix your buttons, Nura, you look like you’ve been dragged through a bush backwards.” She glanced at the roll as she marked them off, “Have either of you seen Fujinuma?”

“I think his bike chain snapped,” Kuriyama offered, “I saw him at the stop lights near the Indian place.”

Muttering something, the teacher waved her hand for the late students to take their seats. 

Busy rifling through his bag to find his books, Rikuo missed both the start of the new student’s introduction and the suspicious flash of her eyes when she heard his fake name. 

“-I’m from Kyoto,” the new student said evenly, chalk gliding over the board in even strokes as she wrote her name. “My name is Keikain Yura. It’s nice to meet all of you.”

Rikuo froze dead still. 

_Did she say...Keikain?_

He glanced back up at the board, reading the characters that sent a chill down the spine of any youkai with an ounce of self-preservation. 

_Well, shit._

_An onmyouji._

After the fall of the Nura clan over a hundred years ago, many onmyouji-youkai alliances had fallen into place. In exchange for protection, youkai wouldn’t harm humans and would assist the onmyouji clan in question with the extermination of enemy youkai. 

The Bakeneko clan held a neutral position, holding a mutual avoidance with the onmyouji clans. As long as Rikuo didn’t make any particularly aggressive moves, he’d be fine.

“Please take your seat, Keikain.” The teacher directed. 

Keikain sat in the second row, next to a boy who quickly leaned over to introduce himself. 

“The Principal asks that you join a club by the end of the week,” the teacher continued, “Club sign-up sheets are posted on most bulletin boards around the school. That’s all the notices for today, feel free to chat until class begins.”

Noise immediately filled the classroom. Several people moved towards Keikain’s desk and began introducing themselves.

Rikuo’s phone buzzed. Glancing down swiftly, he found that he had three messages from Ryouta Neko. 

_RYOUTA ( ^ω^ ) [8:47]: Meeting Sunday 2AM._

_RYOUTA ( ^ω^ ) [8:47]: Taking further action against the rats._

_RYOUTA ( ^ω^ ) [8:49]: Lost two today._

Across the classroom, Keikain Yura’s eyes burned into him. 

~oOo~

That day passed in a blur of wondering why the hell humans needed to know half this math stuff and avoiding the onmyouji girl. 

But, alas, he got to the shoe lockers and realised that he’d left his keys in his desk. Dithering for a moment, Rikuo pondered whether or not he _really_ needed them tonight. 

Then he remembered that Tuesday was his night to leave work last and lock up. Groaning, he slammed his outdoor shoes back into the locker and trudged back up the stairs. 

For some reason, Kiyotsugu was in the classroom, waving his laptop at the other club members. Looking around the room, Rikuo’s heart sank when he realised that Keikain was still present. 

She swivelled her head to stare into his soul in a manner reminiscent of a horror-movie doll. He stared back, subtly reining in his aura a little. 

“Perfect timing, Nura!” Kiyotsugu shouted across the room. 

Rikuo winced. Could he be any louder?

“Which of these fire youkai can fly and control birds?” Kiyotsugu asked, spinning his laptop so Rikuo could see the names. 

“Furaribi,” Rikuo answered after a moment.

“Correct!” The human boy cried, throwing an arm around Rikuo and nearly knocking him over. “Fire youkai make up nearly a third of all youkai! Do you know what their goal is?”

“To instil fear in the hearts of humankind,” came a cool, even voice. 

Everyone turned to stare at Keikain in perfect tandem. 

“You seem to know a lot about youkai, newbie,” Kiyotsugu said, so enthralled by the chance of another youkai enthusiast that he didn’t notice Rikuo worming out of his grip. “I’m sorry - what was your name again?”

“My name is Keikain Yura,” she replied in that soft, cool voice. “Just so you know, animals that have turned into youkai are said to be the most hostile of them all. Many of them are intelligent, but they have no rationality. These traits make them extremely dangerous. You should avoid them at all costs.”

“Wow...you’re fantastic, Miss. Keikain!” Kiyotsugu cried.

“Please call me Yura.”

“You’ve got to join my club! Our main activity is to search for youkai! Look at this protection seal that I’ve got!”

Yura looked flatly at the piece of paper. “That’s not a protection seal,” she said. 

“Nura said the same thing! Hmm, maybe I got the sigils mixed up…Anyway, we’re going to celebrate the formation of this club at my house! According to the family legend, the spirit of great-grandmother Kaede walks the halls on full moons!”

“The full moon’s this Saturday.” Maki said. 

Everyone looked at her. 

“I like astronomy.”

“Nura!” Kiyotsugu shouted, spying Rikuo halfway to the door, “You want to come to the party? Midday tomorrow ‘til ten-ish the next morning!”

He hesitated for a moment, turning the idea over and over in his head. It’s probably unwise, but with Kiyotsugu staring hopefully at him, Rikuo found himself having a hard time refusing. 

“Yes, I can probably make it.”

Heading towards his workplace, Rikuo was once again caught at every red light and train crossing. This time he really _was_ late for his shift. 

“Sorry, sorry,” he muttered, still trying to get his hair to cooperate as he squirmed under Kuchisake-Onna’s patented Expression Of Great Disappointment (TM). “Ran into an onmyouji and—“

“An onmyouji?! Where?” she demanded. Her face mask was pushed down, exposing the jagged slice across her lower face. “Otome, _where_?”

“At the middle school,” he replied, a little taken aback by the volume of her inquiry. “A Keikain. She was young, but powerful.”

“Did she attack you?”

“No, we haven’t interacted at all.”

Kuchisake stared at him with an unreadable expression, mulling something over. 

“Alright, I’ll look into it,” she settled on, tugging her face mask back up. “Tomoe’s out dealing with the rats, so poor Nezuko is waiting on six tables! Don’t just stand there, Otome, get moving!”

The night passed into the morning with the blur of fast-paced work. Rikuo made his way along the alleyway behind the restaurant just before 2AM, taking out the rubbish before he went home.

As always, the alley was dimly lit, which worked wonders for deterring humans. The skip bin was locked and he couldn’t be bothered to go back and get the key, so he quickly glanced around and simply opened it with a handy application of his Fear that he’d picked up in 1940’s Tokyo. 

Throwing the bags in and slamming the lid back down, Rikuo turned around and made an odd squeaking noise when he realised that there was another person in the alley.

“Can I help you?” he asked, not recognising the woman as a co-worker.

At first glance, she looked almost like a black-and-white photograph. Skin a true white, dressed head to toe in black, glossy black hair falling loose and yet somehow remaining elegant.

She looked him up and down in a manner that had him feeling like a particularly disgusting bug defacing her shiny black shoes.

“Hmm,” her dark eyes narrowed, and her tone of voice had Rikuo reaching for the knife tucked into his obi. “Maybe you will be useful, after all.” 

With that cryptic and frankly unnerving statement, she turned on her heel and walked away.

 _...That was weird_.

_Was that whatshisface’s woman in black?_

_Ah, I’ll tell him later._

~oOo~

Saturday afternoon saw Rikuo ringing the doorbell of Kiyotsugu’s freaking _mansion_.

“Nura!” The boy in question beamed, throwing open the door. “Welcome to my house! Come on in! Leave your shoes there!”

Rikuo kicked off his shoes, shuffling them awkwardly into the place directed and hurriedly following Kiyotsugu.

“Everyone else is already here, help yourself to the snacks. I’ll be back in a minute!”

Kiyotsugu apparently did not realise that telling Rikuo to help himself to food was a very bad idea. By the time the curly-haired boy returned, three bowls of chips were gone.

Shuffling everyone into a circle, Kiyotsugu stood before them all and gave a speech that Rikuo was still too busy sneaking chips to pay attention to, before he dragged everybody out into the garden to play some form of capture-the-flag, in the name of team-bonding.

This version with chalk bombs.

Rikuo allowed his thoughts and senses to wander while guarding the flag and idly watching his team be curbstomped. 

There were multiple presences in the house, likely Tsukumogami. However, something flitted on the edges of his senses. _Two_ somethings. One could easily be the grandmother that Kiyotsugu had spoken of, but the other one…

Rikuo received a chalk bomb to the face and stumbled back, train of thought effectively derailed.

“Freakin’ TAG HER, NURA!” Maki screamed as Kana made off with the flag, “GO! _RUN_!”

~oOo~

Come nightfall, everyone split into teams to search the house for youkai.

Rikuo was paired with Shima, who for all his bravado when the girls were around, persisted in leaping nearly a foot in the air every time the slightest creak of settling wood was heard. 

“How about you let _me_ hold the light,” Rikuo requested after Shima dropped the torch for what was easily the fifteenth time.

The problem with Kiyotsugu’s house was that it was very large, and built in that confusing western style with staircases going everywhere and halls winding around like some sort of maze. Within half an hour, Shima and Rikuo were hopelessly lost. 

They were so far inside the building that no light from the street could reach them, and neither of them had been able to find a light switch, meaning that Shima became very antsy when the light from the torch began to flicker. Attempts to open the doors in this hall had all failed, even with Rikuo cheating and using his Fear, which in turn made _him_ nervous.

“I meant to replace the batteries,” Shima bemoaned, whacking the torch against his leg. “I was going to do it this morning, but my stupid cousin distracted me!”

“Mm,” Rikuo said, distracted by a fast-approaching presence, “Hey, could you shine the light over there for a second?”

Shima turned the beam of the torch in the direction indicated, and the light switched off.

“What’d you turn the light off for?”

“I...didn’t.”

Rikuo had exactly two seconds to foolishly hope that the battery had died, before the wind was knocked out of him and he slammed into a wall. He heard Shima’s panicked cry of his name, before a door was ripped open and he was dragged through.

Some inelegant thrashing and blind punches got the thing to let go, and he quickly rolled onto his knees, letting go of his human disguise after a quick confirmation that Shima wasn’t in the room.

He quickly discovered that Kiyotsugu’s great-grandmother Kaede was quite real, very protective of her family, and rather invested in ending Rikuo’s existence.

“Please, just hang on a moment!” he half-wailed, ducking under the blade of the _extremely sharp_ naginata that the yurei was wielding.

“Stay away from my family, youkai!” she snarled, bringing the weapon down hard. Rikuo made a noise like a trodden mouse and pulled at Kyouka Suigetsu, putting as much distance as he could between himself and the incredibly intimidating woman with a sharp weapon.

“I’m not here to hurt you!” he tried, “There’s an onmyouji here - we’re just trying to figure out if you’re a threat to humans or not!”

“A _youkai_ caring about threats to humans? Don’t make me laugh,” Kaede spat. “And either way, it’s not me you need to worry about!”

“What do-”

Both luck and timing was against Rikuo today, for the doors chose this precise moment to slam open and reveal Yura.

He barely ducked an exploding talisman, and bolted to the cover of the large pillars lining the edge of the room. There was some truly _delightful_ background music, in the form of Kaede swearing louder and more fluently than a sailor.

“Are you sure it was this room?” Yura was asking.

“Yes, it was this one!” answered Shima’s voice, high-pitched with panic.

A loud thud came from further down the hall.

Then, something smashed through the wall. Pieces of splintered wood and plaster sprayed across the room, lingering in the air as clouds of white.

“ _That_ is what you want to worry about.” Kaede said, appearing right next to Rikuo.

“What is that?” he asked, squashing the urge to scream and climb up a pillar. Instead, he peered around said pillar to try and get a good look at whatever was now making a considerable racket.

It was a huge, hulking animal-type youkai; the type with almost ridiculously huge muscles and fangs longer than a sword. 

It lumbered around slowly, heavy breaths echoing across the empty space. Its head swung backwards and forth, searching, searching.

_For what?_

Another exploding talisman went off.

The animal youkai screamed, and the pillar Rikuo was hiding behind snapped. He dived sideways, drawing his tantou in a practiced motion and swiping it in a wide arc. It made a shallow cut across the animal youkai’s paw, and it drew back with a howl of pain.

“SUCK ON THAT!” Kaede crowed.

The beast took a swipe at her, and instantly regretted that decision as she lashed out at it with her naginata.

Yura threw another talisman that had Rikuo once again diving out of the way.

“What are you aiming at?!” he yelled.  
“Either get out of my way or kill this thing!” she screamed back.

Rikuo looked at the onmyouji, the animal youkai, and down at the tiny knife in his hand.

The beast snarled at him.

He got out of the way.

~oOo~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I kinda forgot that this existed...  
> Then I saw a few people leaving kudos and was like "crap I should probably do something about that fic"

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thanks to Maydaylily for betaing! And thanks to everyone who showed interest in this fic, it never would've gone anywhere without your support.
> 
> Title is a line from the song _Hameln wa Donoyounishite Fue wo Fukunoka_ by Hello Sleepwalkers.  
> Link to song here: https://youtu.be/tvrt8_aD0ig  
> (video is an absolute acid trip, so be prepared for that lol)


End file.
